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Orcam Features on RTE’s Nationwide

The Orcam featured on RTE’s Nationwide program on the 7th of January 2019 we put together some information on the unit below.

The Orcam is a small wearable device that attaches to your glasses or sunglasses. The units also come with a pair of glasses with clear lenses for those who do not own glasses.

Reading Text

The term O.C.R. for anyone not familiar this means “Optical Character Recognition” is the process in which “printed” characters on a page are scanned and converted too digital text. This digital text is then available to read aloud by the Orcam.

By simply pointing at the desired text the Orcam will take a quick photo and Perform the OCR task and read the text back to in you in a matter of seconds. For people with secondary disabilities, the Orcam can be set to scan text without pointing and additionally a button on the side of the device can be pressed to perform this function also.

Facial Recognition

The Orcam can also store pictures of faces, and we can record a name to go along with these pictures. When a person who is already stored in the device comes into the device’s scan area, they will be announced with their name spoken aloud by the Orcam.

Product Identification

The Orcam can also be used to scan product barcodes. The products name will then be read aloud by the Orcam.

Banknote Identification

By using any of the OCR reading methods while holding a banknote will make the Orcam read aloud the value of the banknote.

Colour Detection

Similarly, the Orcam can identify colours

Gestures

As mentioned earlier pointing at text will activate Orcam’s OCR mode, and it will read text. Another useful gesture to make the motion of looking at the back of your wrist as if you are looking at a watch. Watch or not the Orcam will read the time to you. Placing your stop in a stop gesture will silence the Orcam and stop it from talking aloud.

The Orcam is a great device for reading printed material. This type of technology has helped people gain independence when it comes to reading. Many people no longer have to ask a family member to read their post or have to read menus while out for a bite to eat.
The Orcam can read street signs and all manner of visible text and to people with already some functional vision and good mobility and safety skills the Orcam is a real benefit and greatly improves people’s daily living.
The Orcam cannot identify threats such as curbs or potholes and will not give you a detailed description of surroundings. Its main function is to read text and identity certain available information such as “stored” faces and barcodes etc.

Call us on 01 8307033 with any questions you may have or if you would like to arrange a demonstration.